Browsing by Subject "Alternative media"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8

Based on a true story : "The Gezi Film Poster Series" and the role of narrative in cultural history
(2015-05) Aksu, Leyla Aylin; Straubhaar, Joseph D.; Fuller, Kathryn
Focusing on a series of hypothetical film posters titled the "Gezi Movie Theatre Poster Series," commissioned by Istanbul's independent magazine Bant Mag, this thesis is a multi-methodological, exploratory case study utilizing ethnographic methods, as well as visual, textual, and document analysis. The posters within this series narrativize and encapsulate instances that took shape on the ground during the Gezi protests in Turkey in the Summer of 2013. Embodying the confluence of larger contextual events through the micro-lens of a singular organization and cultural product, the series provides an instance in which key and complex factors regarding social structure, political activism, and cultural production come together in the form of visual narrative. This undertaken analysis seeks to bring together theoretical constructs of social structure, historicization, alternative media and cultural resistance, material culture, artistic creation, and the imaginary, and apply them, in order, to Turkey, Gezi, Bant Mag, and the posters themselves, in order to create an understanding of how they each play a role within the series and its archival formation. Utilizing a critical analytical framework by focusing on the series as art, artifact, and action, after firmly contextually situating the film poster series within Bant Mag's own organizational framework, internal discourse, and history as a magazine, zine, and online resource, this study hopes to demonstrate the affordances of art, imagination, and subjectivity in the creation, documentation, and conservation of historical micro-narratives.
Engaging voices or talking to air? A study of alternative and community radio audience in the digital era
(2014-05) Guo, Lei, active 21st century; Chyi, Hsiang Iris, 1971-; De Uriarte, Mercedes Lynn
In November 2012, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced the implementation of the Local Community Radio Act of 2010, which marks the largest expansion of community radio stations in U.S. history. The act responds to the decade-long community radio movement in which many civilian groups advocated that community radio—an “old-fashioned” yet affordable public medium—still plays a significant role in fostering the expression of diverse voices and citizen participation in this digital era. Despite the successful advocacy effort in the policy-making arena, the real impact of community radio remains a question. Who listens to and participates in community radio? Does the connection between community radio and community exist? This dissertation investigates audience interaction and participation in the U.S. community radio sector, seeking to empirically and theoretically advance audience research in community radio and alternative media in general. Methodologically, this dissertation is based on case studies from two community radio stations KOOP and KPFT in Texas through multiple methods including 5-year ethnographic fieldwork, in-depth interviews with 70 individuals including staff, programmers and listeners, a web-based listener survey with 131 respondents, and a textual analysis of producer-audience communication platforms such as blogs and social networking sites. The results demonstrate the limitations of audience interaction and participation caused by resource constraints and community radio programmers’ tendency to speak with themselves. Therefore, I recommend that community radio broadcasters should consider developing systemic approaches to evaluate and facilitate audience participation, which requires an understanding that the value of community engagement lies beyond audience size or the amount of listener donations. This dissertation concludes that community radio remains relevant in this digital era. This affordable and accessible form of alternative media to some extent bridges a digital divide. The medium also facilitates the development of a genuine relationship between radio programmers and listeners, thus the formation of virtual and real communities. These are the very elements that make meaningful dialogues possible in any communication environment.
From the polis to Facebook : social media and the development of a new Greek public sphere
(2018-05) Nevradakis, Michael; Strover, Sharon; Straubhaar, Joseph D.; Kumar, Shanti; Miller, Mark Crispin
The objective of this research project is to critically examine how social and new media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and online radio have influenced the potential development or rejuvenation of public sphere, civil society, and public discourse in Greece during the years of the country’s economic, political, and social crisis. The project attempts to answer how social and new media have impacted the public sphere and civil society, how social and new media have contributed to the formation of new political and social movements, how social and new media have contributed to the formation of alternative online news sources, and whether social and new media are considered to be more credible sources of news and information compared to mainstream media institutions. Greece was selected as the site for this research project in response to the prevailing view found in the body of academic literature that Greece’s public sphere and civil society have historically been underdeveloped when compared to the countries of Western Europe and the United States. In addition, the political and economic upheaval which accompanied the Greek economic crisis and the country’s location at the intersection of Western and Eastern Europe and the Middle East, presented intriguing possibilities for research and for examining the role that new technologies can play in the redevelopment of the public sphere and civil society during a time of crisis. Interviews were conducted with over 120 individuals, including elected officials and political personnel, journalists, media professionals, bloggers, academics, opinion leaders, activists, and representatives of organizations active within civil society. Five illustrative examples of organizations with a prominent social media presence, including a non-governmental organization, a political party, a mainstream media corporation, an online news portal, and an alternative online radio station were examined. Electronic survey research was also performed across three sample populations, including Greece’s representatives in the European Parliament, editors of major Greek newspapers, and representatives from organizations operating in the civil society sector. This dissertation is based on longitudinal, multi-year research performed in Greece between September 2012 and August 2017.
Hecho con ganas : Latin@ alternative and activist media
(2015-05) Rodriguez, Vittoria Nicole; Beltrán, Mary C.
The proliferation of independently produced Latin@ media has only intensified with the rise of new media technologies and saliency of online user-generated content in our present media culture. As online platforms become more open and new media technologies and devices make the creation and accessing of information easier, Latin@s and other minorities who have traditionally been marginalized within mainstream media culture and largely excluded from participating in media industries, are turning to the web to launch their own media projects. In more recent years, Latin@s have utilized new media to resist and challenge the mainstream. As a result, we have witnessed the appearance of Latin@-produced, non-commercial and/or activist oriented websites, videos, audio, and blogs that this thesis argues act as alternative and activist media. Latin@ alternative and activist media may be understood as typically small-scale projects that posses little to no budget and that generally critique the marginalization and exclusion of Latin@s in mainstream media and U.S. society. In addition to contesting the mainstream, Latin@ alternative and activist media express and question in-group identity and enact varying degrees of in-group civic participation and empowerment, resulting is the constitution of a multitude of Latinidades and the formation of Latin@ online communities and social media groups. Using Latino Rebels and Dreamers Adrift as case studies, this thesis examines the ways in which these particular examples of Latin@ alternative and activist media express divergent and/or radical perspectives of society through their processes and content while also connecting these media texts to the current social and political realities of Latin@s.
“Liberation technology?” : Toward an understanding of the re-appropriation of social media for emancipatory uses among alternative media projects in El Salvador
(2014-05) Harlow, Summer Dawn; Johnson, Thomas J., 1960-; de Uriarte, Mercedes Lynn
This dissertation explores whether and how alternative media in El Salvador incorporated information communication technologies (ICTs) for social change, and whether incorporating said technologies changed citizen participation not only in the media process itself, but also in a broader discursive sphere as well as civic and political life. Within the context of a digitally divided region, this project employed ethnographic methods—including in-depth interviews, participant-observation, and a content analysis—to interrogate the perceived potential value of ICTs in alternative media for contesting power, contributing to social change, and opening spaces for citizen participation in technology and through technology. This research is merely a beginning stage in learning how digital communication tools influence alternative media practices, and what that means for participation, mobilization and empowerment. This study contributes to burgeoning literature focused on communication for social change and technologies by adding an international focus, and by furthering our understanding of under what circumstances alternative media can (or cannot) employ new technologies in liberating ways, especially in a region where use of and access to these technologies is far from universal. Ultimately this dissertation advances existing literature with two main contributions: extending our understanding of the digital divide to include inequalities of social media and whether it is used in liberating or frivolous ways, and including technology use—whether liberating or not¬—as a fundamental approach to the study of alternative media.
Radio friendly paradigm shifter : progressive college broadcasting in the 1980s
(2011-08) Uskovich, David Anthony; Kearney, Mary Celeste, 1962-; Downing, John; Kackman, Michael; Nehring, Neil; Staiger, Janet; Watkins, Craig
This dissertation examines the role progressive college radio played as a site of political engagement for youth in the United States in the 1980s, particularly in its connection to punk culture. Progressive college radio is defined here as a particular type of noncommercial radio broadcast from university radio stations. It inherited from educational radio a commitment to democratic communication and from community radio a commitment to localism and representing underrepresented communities. Progressive college radio continued these missions, but also applied them to music, playing music considered unmarketable by the commercial music industry and thereby representing underrepresented musicians. College radio is popularly remembered as the radio format that helped create commercial alternative rock in the 1980s. This narrative effaces the way the most progressive college stations programmed music hostile to the music industry, especially punk and its related genres, and the way that progressive DJs often felt uncomfortable being part of a farm system for the music industry, something this dissertation investigates. Through discourse analysis of archival materials from four progressive college radio stations, as well as interviews with former DJs, this dissertation reveals how station personnel understood the role of progressive college radio in relation to the music industry, punk culture, the dominant culture of the US in the 1980s, and in their own lives. By investigating how the DJs conceptualized and debated their programming and production practices, this project illustrates how progressive college radio responded to increasing music industry scrutiny and a conservative culture’s increasingly hostile and narrow conceptions of youth. This dissertation also charts the ways progressive college radio DJs mobilized punk’s do-it-yourself (DIY) mode of cultural production, amateur aesthetics, and anti-authoritarianism, to create both a physical and sonic space for self-representation and creative expression.
Silence, morality, and the religious Left : strategies for voice in the public sphere
(2021-07-30) Wong, Joansandy M.; Cloud, Dana L.; Gunn, Joshua, 1973-; Jarvis, Sharon E.; Chávez, Karma R.
Due to internal fragmentation on the Left and the systemic silencing of the religious Left, the Right continues to dominate the morality narrative in the public sphere, leading to a misconstrued understanding of what constitutes the common good. Two prominent movements led by the religious Left were rhetorically analyzed to determine strategies used by the religious Left to successfully counter silencing tactics and reclaim the moral authority in the public sphere. These successful movements shared similarities. Both movements had charismatic and competent leaders who used storytelling and the prophetic tradition to frame their social justice cause as morally righteous. Both movements were attacked by powerful establishment forces that attempted to label the activists as outside the norm or bounds of the institution. Additionally, both movement leaders seized on the opportunity created by the establishment’s attack and strategically used media saturation to counter the Right’s silencing tactics. Finally, these religious leaders gained and used political capital to continue the ongoing fight for justice. The religious Left is a powerful ally that brings a rich prophetic rhetorical tradition, historic personal and group rituals, unifying bridging tactics, communities of passionate activists who view justice as a moral imperative, and charismatic leaders who imbue the struggle with moral righteousness. These case studies suggest that the Right’s claim on moral authority is contestable. It also provides support for the contention that there is space in the public sphere for the deliberation of values and for critical debate on what constitutes the common good.
Social documentary in the era of the popular front : The Plow That Broke the Plains, alternative filmmaking, and the struggle for independent distribution in the United States, 1935-37
(2015-05) Altenberg, Benjamin Creed; Fuller-Seeley, Kathryn; Stein, Laura
In the time before World War II in the United States, a generation was radicalized by the Great Depression and inspired to challenge cultural conventions across many forms of media. In the area of film, a peculiar instance of alternative production and distribution sprouted out of the United States government in the form of a 2-reel documentary entitled The Plow That Broke the Plains, originally released in 1936. Funded by a relief agency, directed by a man with no experience, and shot by radical leftist artists out of New York City, the film was an unusual challenge to the status quo of the prevailing classical Hollywood model. It was so jarring, in fact, that Hollywood studios denounced the effort publicly and prevented the mainstream theatres that they controlled from showing the picture. The following efforts to distribute the film in spite of this mainstream opposition allowed the film to be seen by an alternative set of audiences across multiple kinds of exhibition spaces, including educational assemblies and striking labor unions. Using a plethora of primary and secondary historical sources, as well as a framework developed by Chris Atton for studying alternative media, this thesis analyzes the production and distribution processes of the film to help elucidate how a work functioning outside of the dominant commercial industry could attain national recognition and reach audiences across urban, suburban, and rural areas of the country at a time when other such alternative cinematic endeavors never accessed many viewers outside of a bourgeois elite cultural sphere.